All posts tagged: San Francisco

This is the second pat of my series on the fight for equity of Filipino veterans, written in 2008 when I was a Yuchengco media fellow at the University of San Francisco’s Center for the Pacific Rim. The U.S. government has since approved partial benefits for veterans but this recent story shows another blow to the seemingly endless struggle for equity. San Francisco – Some say they are fighting an unwinnable war, and perhaps they are, but they are soldiers – they will continue to fight, if it’s the last thing they do. By the looks of the Filipino World War II veterans – their faces old, their arms weak, their gaits slow – this struggle for recognition and proper compensation, or what is called “equity” around here, may just take up their last breath. After a near-victory in the 110th Congress, the veterans and their supporters are back to square one in a legislative battle that has now spanned six decades and reaped only piecemeal laws granting them citizenship, access to health care and …

This was written in 2008, when I was a Yuchengco media fellow at the University of San Francisco’s Center for the Pacific Rim. It’s part of a series I did on the struggle of the widows of Filipino soldiers who died fighting for their rightful benefits as U.S. veterans. Today I found this article. Sad, just sad. San Francisco – Pilar dela Cruz is 68 years old and worried about her taxes next year. “I just read in a newspaper that they want to increase taxes because of the crisis,” she says one afternoon after arriving home from her morning shift. Despite her own age and knee problem, dela Cruz, the widow of a Filipino veteran, is still working eight hours a day, five days a week, as a care provider for the elderly. Her husband Ricardo, a former guerilla fighter who has received no recognition or financial compensation for his service in the U.S. military during World War II, left her with nothing when he died in 2001. “I plan to work until I’m 70, so …